It’s not what you say but the way that you say it. I just came across this short video that illustrates the point rather nicely (along with multiple meanings of ‘whatever’).
Here the issue was predominantly pronunciation – or intonation to be specific. I think it’s a nice illustration of how meaning is not just conveyed with words. So much more is involved.
There are some funny things that go on with the pronunciation of some French words in British-‘merican. Over here, I park my car in a garAGE and watch balLET and we eat fish filLET. It all sounds a touch poncey and affected to my British ear – though perfectly fine in ‘merican, of course. For more see here.
The recent snow storms meant flights to the US were cancelled to so at 3 am US time I called home to tell my husband that British Airways would be putting me up at the Renaissance Hotel in London. The poor guy dutifully did searches for a hotel called the René Sans.
A lot of the English courses I write come with audio CDs, so periodically I spend a day or two in studios listening to actors performing for the recordings. When I lived in the UK, the American actors often sounded ultra-polite. It seemed over the top for my British ear so I was always asking if they could tone down the upbeat-and-perky and sound a bit more matter of fact.
But since I’ve been living in the States, I’ve noticed the American actors sound great on the first take. Have they all come off Prozac I wonder, or did my ear need to adjust? No doubt the latter so I’d like to apologise to all the American actors I’ve ever asked to do a retake.
